Scott Dixon, Ganassi, IndyCar, 2019

Dixon wins as points leader Newgarden crashes out

IndyCar

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Scott Dixon redeemed himself for crashing out of Saturday’s IndyCar race in Detroit by taking his first win of 2019 on Sunday.

The Ganassi driver hit the front of the field early in the race when Patricio O’Ward, Tony Kanaan and Simon Pagenaud collided on the first lap and stopped. While most of the drivers who had started on the alternate tyres headed for the pits, Dixon stayed out and led until the fragile rubber went off.

Dixon’s cause was aided by a caution triggered when Spencer Pigot, another driver who tried to run long on the alternates, was hit from behind as he was trying to enter the pits. Sebastien Bourdais collected the Carpenter driver, sending him into the barrier separating the pit entrance from the circuit.

Santino Ferrucci led the restart, pursued by Graham Rahal and front-row started Josef Newgardan and Alexander Rossi. When Rahal’s pace dropped off Rossi dived for the pits, followed by Newgarden, who stayed in front of the Andretti driver.

However James Hinchcliffe’s pit stop provoked drama. He emerged immediately in front of Newgarden, forcing the race one winner to lift, which brought Rossi onto the pair of them. Heading into turn three Rossi attempted to dive for the inside but spun, while Newgarden also spun as he tried to pass Hinchcliffe. Only Rossi emerged unscathed, and the course went full-course caution again.

Dixon regained the lead for the restart ahead of Marcus Ericsson, Takuma Sato, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti. However Will Power, who had been involved in the lap one crash and briefly came to a stop during the first caution period, made an insurgent run into the top three.

Dixon’s run to the chequered flag was briefly disrupted by team mate Felix Rosenqvist, who spun into the turn one barrier six laps from home. That brought out the red flags, allowing the race to resume for a final three uninterrupted laps, but Dixon easily led Ericsson and Power home.

Hunter-Reay took fourth ahead of team mates Rossi and Andretti. Graham Rahal took third ahead of the fourth Andretti car of Zach Veach, who started third but lost touch with the leaders early on. Bourdais came in ninth ahead of Ferrucci.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Dixon wins as points leader Newgarden crashes out”

  1. With Newgarden crashing out, the championship is wide open. Newgarden vs Rossi vs Dixon vs Pagenaud with Sato being the underdog. What an exciting season!!!

  2. This is racing.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      3rd June 2019, 17:25

      @seanloh This is a spec series. They do offer more equality in material yes.

      1. Biskit Boy (@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk)
        4th June 2019, 13:31

        On my, it’s a SPEC series. That four letter word! Huh, as if it somehow dilutes and diminishes the quality of the racing… I think not.

        Just as F1 has many spec parts, Indycar has many non-spec parts. I suggest you read up. In respect of spec, Indycar differs to F1 only by the degree.

        I love both F1 and Indycar. Each has there relative merits but F1 could learn a lot from Indycar in terms of the quality of the on track racing.

  3. The Sunday race was terrific!

    Nice drive by Marcus, congrats. Don’t try to go back to F1 and waste time hoping for 15th driving an Alfa.

  4. Gutted for Rossi, he was quick all weekend so a 2nd and a 5th feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. It felt like he got let down on strategy twice, particularly in the first race.

    1. I don’t think he got let down so much as just unlucky with when people crashed. Dixon, Ericsson, and Power all got lucky last night with when they happened, that seems to kinda be a staple of Indycar moreso than any other racing. It’s still very exciting though.

      1. @hugh11 Agreed, a poor choice of word from me there.

  5. Really starting to get into Indyar, the cars are visibly so difficult to control why on earth does F1 even have power steering?

    The only thing I’m not so keen on is the rolling starts and the frequency of actual restarts, but I guess the latter is a byproduct of so much damn action.

    1. tony mansell
      3rd June 2019, 14:08

      Yes I agree, the power steering in f1 is killing any enjoyment left, it just dampens out anything or a computer is actually controlling the steering, nothing would surprise me. I want my sport back

    2. Agreed! IndyCars are beasts to drive. No power steering and the big reduction in downforce with the current aero package make them a real handful to drive. Even though they have less power than F1, they look about twice as fast because they are all over the place. A MUCH better show than F1, always better racing, more interesting.

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